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http://hdl.handle.net/1808/1789 In the first place, the English language is a status symbol of education and civilization in Nigeria. Hence, if these subjects were asked directly to rate their abilities in this language, they would be obliged to rate themselves very high even when this is artificial. Secondly, Yoruba language happens to be the mother tongue of these respondents which means they already have a particular mindset with regards to their abilities in this language. Consistent with the objectives of the research, we were thus able through these simple, yet penetrating questions (9&11) to establish the abilities of the respondents in both languages. Table 6: Respondents Self-Reports on Yoruba use and Maintenance in Percentages (N=300) Age Less spoken especially among the youth Always spoken codemixed with English People are no longer comfortable speaking it Renewed interest in it by scholars in Nigeria 11 – 20 23 45 5 2 25 21 – 30 46 51 2 - 1 31- 40 29 63 4 4 - 41-50 26 71 3 - - 50+ 32 55 13 - - No essential change / I don’t know Table 7: Respondents Self-Reports on mode of English acquisition in percentages (N=300) Age Acquired it naturally right from birth Learned it at school through teaching 11 – 20 8 92 - 21 – 30 2 98 - 31- 40 1 92 - 41-50 - 100 - 50+ - 100 - Picked it up in the neighbourhood As evident on Table 6, 90 percent of the respondents know that the contact of English with their language has adversely affected its use as well as their proficiency in it. For instance, 32 percent of the adults who are over fifty years are 94
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/1789 of the view that Yoruba is now less spoken, especially among the youths, 55 percent opined that Yoruba is always spoken, code-mixed with English. To about 13 percent of this age group, people are no longer comfortable speaking it. Only about 2-4 percent of the respondents made a positive comment which is that scholars in Nigeria now have a renewed interest in it. Table 6 simply presents a gloomy picture of the Yoruba language maintenance situation in this community. Table 7 simply shows that the learning of English by these respondents is after the acquisition of the mother tongue. Thus, linguistic interference (or negative transfer of the forms and meanings of structure of the native language and culture to the target language (cf. Wilkins 1982:199)) is a major obstacle to their perfect mastery of the English language. Indeed, question number 13 of the questionnaire says: Do you speak one of the languages more fluently than the others? 97 percent of the respondents said yes. What is more, Yoruba was picked as the one better known. However, Table 6 has sufficiently revealed the deteriorating standards of the Yoruba language in this community. As a participant observer who speaks the two languages, it is no exaggeration to say that the results presented in the two tables reflect the true position of things in the community. The tables have simply confirmed our observations. In other words, there is a correlation between language use and language proficiency. It is expected that an average Nigerian who has a considerable minimum education, will be able to speak English, the official language of the country to an extent, pidgin to a certain extent and his mother tongue efficiently. To another who is not so educated he would at least be able to use his mother tongue efficiently and a pidgin language. The third set of people who can be vast in only one language are mostly the aged members of the community who were not exposed to formal education at all. Since this study is situated in south western Nigeria where Yoruba happens to be the mother tongue, we expected the respondents to be proficient in English and Yoruba since they are all educated. Thus, we conclude by saying that while the bilingual status of these subjects is not in doubt, their proficiency and efficiency in these two languages are subject to doubts as a result of the source of their knowledge. The foregoing has simply revealed how language use in this community has in turn affected proficiency in each of these languages depending on matrices of proficiency such as the domains of use, respondents’ ages and sources of knowledge. Ethnicity and Language Related Attitudes In order to be able to draw a safe conclusion based on our findings, let us consider the language attitude of our respondents. Since language attitudes can only be ascertained through the use of indirect question (Baker, 1992), the attitudinal questions posed to our respondents are of these types: i) Is it necessary for your children to learn Yoruba? 95
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